HPC for Energy Innovation announces funding for new energy efficiency projects

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) initiative today announced over $5 million in new funding for 13 industry partnerships, including a project led at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop more efficient optical cables.

The awards, which stem from DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Summer 2023 solicitation for the program, were funded under HPC4EI’s pillar programs, HPC4Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) and HPC4Materials (HPC4Mtls). HPC4EI is managed by LLNL for DOE EERE and the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM).

The new funding includes $400,000 for a follow-on project between LLNL and Flawless Photonics to model defect formation in fiber optic glass manufacturing. The simulations will guide unit-gravity and microgravity experiments for the eventual production of highly efficient transmission with impactful energy-saving capabilities.

Shifting data transmission cables from silica to ZBLAN (a fluoride glass) could save 10.1 million gigajoules of energy and reduce carbon dioxide by 4.8 million tons per year, according to the company. A previous partnership with the company used simulations to determine which processes were most affected by microgravity. Funding for the work, as well as the nine other projects under the HPC4Mfg umbrella, will come from DOE EERE’s Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO).

Altogether, the 13 new projects will receive nearly $5.5 million from offices within DOE EERE. Three projects funded by the FECM office under the HPC4Mtls program will be headed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Partner companies are GE Research, 8 Rivers Capital and Capture6 and involve research in alternative fuels and carbon capture.

The 10 projects funded by DOE’s AMMTO and Industrial Efficiency & Decarbonization Office under the HPC4Mfg program include efforts led by ORNL, Lawrence Berkeley, Argonne and Los Alamos national laboratories, as well as NETL and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The projects are aimed at improving manufacturing processes and reducing emissions in industrial sectors such as aerospace, energy storage and steelmaking. Partner companies include General Electric, Siemens Energy, ArcelorMittal USA and Pratt & Whitney.

Industry partners were required to provide in-kind contributions of 20% of the project costs. To date, HPC4EI and its pillar programs have supported 169 projects with funding of more than $50 million.

See a full list of funded projects.